Lukoil Romania to allocate €75 mln for acquisitions

To reach this goal, the company plans to invest some €75 million in the construction or acquisition of 50 new gas stations, according to LukOil Romania’s Deputy General Manager, Andrei Chirilescu.

“We currently have three or four stations under construction. To date we have not purchased any station from individual owners, but hope to start making some acquisitions next year,” Chirilescu said. He added LukOil Romania has concluded franchise deals with four fuel distribution stations.

Earlier last month, the company's General Manager, Constantin Tampiza, said that LukOil plans to increase its market share to some 30-33 percent, from a current 25 percent.

The main fuel distributor on the local market is Petrom, Romania’s largest company, controlled by Austrian OMV Group, with a 28 percent market share. The third-largest distributor is Rompetrol, recently purchased by Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil company KazMunaiGaz, with an 18-20 percent share of the market. Another significant player is Hungarian Mol Group, which controls 14 percent of the market.